Pig prices shoot up

In March, the price of pork rose by more than 30%. The reason? A sharp increase in demand and a decrease in supply. This makes for more expensive shopping baskets for consumers, but for pig farmers the higher prices finally offer some perspective.

Supply on the decline

The rapidly rising pig prices are a perfect illustration of the law of supply and demand. Due to the crisis in the pig sector, many pig farmers have stopped or are keeping fewer pigs in recent years. This is true both at home and abroad. In important carcass markets such as Poland, for example, pig production fell by 20% due to the combination of African swine fever and low pig prices. The result of all this is a shrinking pig herd in Europe.

Demand on the rise

Demand is moving in the opposite direction. Since the corona measures were lifted, demand from the hotel and catering industry has recovered. Exports to South Korea and the Philippines, among others, are also doing well. And then there is the war in Ukraine. To feed the many Ukrainians who are fleeing, the demand from Poland and other neighbouring countries has risen sharply. The pig market has thus quickly evolved from a supply market to a demand market.

Unprecedented price increase

The supply cannot currently keep up with the increased demand. This leads to unseen price increases. In week 12, the pig price according to the Belgian Pork Group quotation was 1.83 euro per kilo of carcass weight. That is 57 cents more than one month ago, or an increase of more than 30%. The price for live pork follows the same evolution: from 1.01 euro per kilo in the last week of February to 1.49 euro per kilo in the last week of March.

Perspective for pig farmers

It is possible that prices for pork will continue to climb in April, and that could be good news for Belgian pig farmers. After two years of rock bottom prices, some of them are finally making a small profit again. To be really profitable, however, according to Boerenbond the pig prices should increase even further towards 2 euro per kilo, because the pig feed has also become more expensive in recent months.